Loki woke up to a strange feeling.
Just the fact itself of waking up naturally, not because someone had kicked him into being awake, was strange.
Also the way the bed accommodated his body, not opposing to it the way the hard planks he was used to do, was foreign to him. And now that he was thinking about it, also his body was giving him sensations he almost couldn't recognise; he was feeling strangely well, nothing hurt, all his wounds had had time to heal overnight and for once no part of his body ached. He also felt clean and warm, and that was what prompted him to open his eyes, because he had to see what was going on.
Next to him Stark was still sleeping, but his arm had never stopped keeping Loki close.
The former prince looked at the human's relaxed face for some time, trying to understand what passed through his mind; it was so strange to find a man like that, who only wanted to hold him close and to make him feel comfortable. He had never found any, actually. Not even before all of that.
At an imprecise moment during Loki's inspection Tony's eyes fluttered open, but he said nothing, giving Loki the time to adjust to something that he painfully knew was new to the god; he allowed Loki to do as he more pleased, appreciating the way he fitted against his side. Loki was extremely bony even for his previous standards, but Tony still liked the sensation of having him tenderly pressed against his body.
"Good morning, sunshine," Tony joked when it was clear Loki had noticed he was awake, "Did you sleep well?"
Loki was a little taken aback by the genuine question, "Yes. Thank you," he added, because without the man's intervention he would've never managed to sleep through the night; not only for Stark's idea of holding him close that had subdued his panic, but also because it was only because of him that that night had been devoted to his sleep.
"It didn't take that much of an effort from me, Bambi."
Loki could have insisted on how remarkably different his behaviour had been from what was usually reserved to him, but he knew it would have only made Stark feel bad, even though he had no idea of the reason of that.
"It was still warmly appreciated."
Tony smiled as Loki snuggled closer to him – maybe as a way to thank him, maybe because he was comfortable, he didn't know, but it didn't really matter. Loki seemed to be enjoying his new spot on his chest, and if that was what made Loki happy he would have surely kept him there for as long as he wanted.
Or at least he would have liked to.
"Listen, Lolo, I don't want this to come out the wrong way, but in fifteen minutes I have to get up if want to arrive to the meeting on time, and since its the first one I probably have to make a good impression, even if I'm, well, me."
"Of course," Loki made to get up and leave the man to his day, but the arm around his waist held him in his current place.
"Fifteen minutes more," Tony yawned, eliciting a faint smile from Loki.
"I hope my presence won't make you late, m-" he stopped abruptly, his eyes shooting at Stark's face to apologise and to be prepared for the moment when the man would have lashed out at him for contradicting the only order he had given him, but Stark only stroked his hand across his side.
"I'm always late, so I don't think you're really making a difference on that front. Uhm, well, there's something I need to ask you."
"What?" Loki tried not to sound worried, but it wasn't an attempt even worthy of such name.
"What happens today? Like, now, when we both leave this room, what happens to you?"
If there was one thing he could do for Stark was at least answer to his questions, "I'm allowed to go back to my room for an hour and then I have some chores to take care of, at least until someone claims me for some time."
Stark seemed to shudder against him, "Okay, when my meeting's over you come back here, and you stay. No, wait, this came out wrong: you come back here and you stay if you want to."
There was a pained expression on Loki's face Stark needed a few seconds to decipher.
How dumb he was without coffee.
Of course that sentence had put Loki in a state of agitation: he wasn't allowed to actually want anything, and at the same time he couldn't point that out for Tony to understand because that would have meant interrupting and contradicting him.
Tony had just woken up and he was already feeling the first signs of a vicious headache.
"Sorry, I didn't think that through, but I'm not exactly a morning person and I need some time to kick my brain into gear. Let's try another way: did you enjoy tonight?"
Loki looked at him as if he had lost his mind, his face tilted to the side against Tony's shoulder in a way it stirred something weird in Tony's chest.
"You can say no if you didn't, I won't get offended," he would have probably banged his head against a wall at the thought of having forced Loki to do something he didn't want, to have been just another one of those who already did, but Loki defused such a possibility.
"Say no? You gave me food, comfort, your clothes, the chance of a decent bath, you didn't rape me and let me sleep in your bed, why should I say I didn't enjoy tonight? I can only thank you."
Tony saw it in the same way, except for the amount of gratitude so clearly present in his voice and that shouldn't have been there at all, and for the words that the god had just spoken that only made him feel sick at the thought for what Loki had been through; beside that, yeah, he was convinced too that Loki had nothing in contrary with how things ha gone between them that night.
"So, if I were to ask you to come back here, it'd be something you could appreciate, right?"
"There's no need to concern yourself with my opinion on the matter."
"I happen to care about your opinion, Lolo, so please speak up."
"It's not something I have a choice about. If you want me I'll be here, if you don't that's it, you don't owe me any explanation," the way in which he almost sank in Tony's still present embrace spoke volumes about his actual opinion on the matter, and yet he couldn't voice it for the always present fear he had of his gaolers finding out what he had said behind closed doors.
"Just consider it an hypothesis and answer me freely."
Loki didn't wince at the word only because Stark's fingers in his hair were too distracting, "Just an hypothesis?"
"Yes, theoretically speaking, nothing serious."
"Well, I guess that theoretically speaking I'd like to have another day like yesterday, at least for the part concerning you, if you don't mind having me around."
Tony kept absentmindedly threading his fingers in Loki's hair, not really paying that much attention to the movement of his hand; what he was really focusing on was his tone, so dismissive and used to not be heard.
"Okay, so I think I'll stick to my previous decision. My meeting, and then you come back."
Loki genuinely smiled this time, "As you wish, m-," his slip on the word erased that smile from his lips as if it had been slapped away.
"What about using my name, mmh?" Tony cupped his cheek with his free hand, his thumb gently stroking his too sharp cheekbone; he wasn't acting on the interest he had been harbouring for Loki in the last few years, in that moment it didn't even cross his mind, he simply was a tactile person and drew comfort from human touch, so his first instinct when he was in the presence of someone in a state of distress was to hold them close.
"Your name?"
Now Loki looked physically in pain; listening to this order went against everything he had so hardly been taught, but also disobeying was something he would have been punished for. As long as Stark asked him not to use the term 'master' he could try to comply, if he excluded the many slips he strangely hadn't still been chastised for, but actually using his name was out of question. Such a show of blatant disrespect would've sent him to the Cell in the round of a couple of minutes.
"My name, yes. I've told you, I don't want to have anything in common with the people who did this to you. I'm no master, and I won't be addressed as such."
Loki was biting at his nails, debating with himself which was the safest option, "Mr. Stark?" He ventured.
"My name, Lolo. Mr. Stark was my father, and that's another person I don't want to be associated to."
A few tense moments of silence anticipated the whisper that came out of Loki's lips, "Anthony?"
"Here you go, Lokes," the man put on quite a show smiling at Loki; they would have moved to Tony with time, there was no need to rush, "We can… hey, what's that?" He propped himself up on his elbows, his attention drawn by the movement on the table in the middle of the room; something was appearing on it, but there was no one in sight, no noise had foreshadowed the appearance of what Tony identified as food.
"Your breakfast," Loki had ended up sprawled on the pillows when Stark… no, when Anthony had jumped up as a child at the sight of a simple touch of magic.
"But there's no one here, the door is still locked. How's that possible?"
"Magic," Loki said as if it should have been obvious.
Tony turned to him with an amazed expression painted on his face, "You mean that my breakfast has been delivered by magic?"
"Yes?" Loki quirked an eyebrow because there was nothing extraordinary in that; it was a spell even a child could've performed, and yet Anthony seemed to have just witnessed to the most intricate spell of his life, "Is this the first time you assist to magic being used?" He dared to ask when the thought crossed his mind.
"If you mean real magic yes, of course! There are illusionists on Earth but I think that they must look a bit of a fraud to a magic wielder, right?"
Loki nodded, a little amused himself by the curiosity in Anthony's dark eyes.
"Is all of that edible? I mean, it isn't an illusion that'll disappear as soon as I touch something?"
This time Loki couldn't stop himself, because when the subject was magic there was no way he was able to restrain himself, "What would be the purpose of delivering you a breakfast that would disappear when touched?"
Tony chuckled more for Loki's almost annoyed tone that for his own naivety, "You have a point here. So we can eat what's on the table?"
"You can enjoy your breakfast, there's nothing strange with it. All the food here is delivered to the guests with a small transportation spell," he kept on explaining because Anthony's excited expression was too much an invitation for him to finally talk again about magic, even if he was just referring small facts.
"If that stuff won't explode in my face I think we can have breakfast, then I really have to go. Well?" He asked when Loki didn't follow him to the table.
Loki looked at him confusedly.
"Come have breakfast, Bambi."
Loki ventured out of the bed, warily following the human to the table, but hesitating before sitting down; being allowed to eat was already something strange, but sitting at the table together as if they were equals? No, that was out of league. He couldn't sit at the table with Anthony, show him such outrageous disrespect wasn't something he could do so lightheartedly.
"Lolo?" Anthony asked from the chair, where he was already filling his plate from the trays on the table, "Sit down and eat, I'm sorry but I don't have that much time."
"I… I can't sit down with you," he pushed himself to say.
"Why not?"
"It's not my place to do so, even sharing your meals is something I'm not supposed to do," in that moment Loki realised he was staring at the man in front of him from above, so he quickly knelt on the floor next to his chair.
"No, hey, get up," Anthony's hand landed on his shoulder, "Sit at the table with me, I don't care what they've told you," he pulled out the chair for Loki, and the former prince couldn't refuse such a direct indication.
They ate in silence since Tony had realised he situation was already difficult enough for Loki without the need of guarding his every word, but the quiet moment didn't last long when Stark noticed how terribly late he already was, "Okay, I really have to get ready. Eat whatever you want, I'll get dressed and go," he started moving frantically around in the room, fishing some decent clothes from the suitcase – making a mental note of hanging his suits before they got all crumpled since he had been kind of distracted the previous night when he should have done that in the first place – and finished tying his tie when he was already on the door, "See you later Bambi."
Tony's idea of later proved to be way too soon for his liking.
The meeting had started from only a half an hour – proving right his idea that business meetings were equal not only all over the world but apparently in the entire universe – and he was already having troubles keeping a straight face in front of those people who were the responsible of Loki's fate in that hellish place.
"It has come to our attention that an enemy of yours is staying here in the palace, Mr. Stark," said an incredibly pale elf with violet eyes, Kythrit or something similar, Tony didn't know.
"Oh, yes, we've met yesterday."
That was definitely what he needed, discussing Loki with the people who had turned him into a slave. That was really good for his mental health, really really good.
"We can assure you he's not the same of when you two met for the first time," another one, with startling green hair, sneered.
"I noticed," everyone on Earth who told him he wasn't good at mastering his temper should have seen him now, for how he managed not to punch the elf in the face.
"Why not bringing the slave here, since we are already talking about him?"
"I thought we had more pressing matters to discuss here."
"We have time, Mr. Stark, and a little fun has never harmed anyone."
Beside Loki, but apparently they didn't care.
"Guard, bring here the slave."
"He should be in his room now, sir."
"Then go fetch him," the elf dismissed him, and before Tony had the time to think something to prevent that Loki was being dragged through the door.
The guard was pushing him inside the room with the point of his staff, and before Loki had time to do anything to react to the presence of all those people the staff collided with the back of his knees, sending him to the floor.
"Here you are, godling," the elf with the green hair greeted him, his tone so cheerful it made Tony want to kick him in the crotch.
"We have a new guest in the palace, as I've been informed you already know, but since we hadn't the opportunity to take part to that meeting we think it'd be appropriate from you to properly apologise in front of Mr. Stark, here," he waved toward Tony, as if for him to gloat on cue, but he remained silent, his eyes trained on Loki who was staring at the floor, hands folded in his lap.
"So? Not speaking anymore? You were so fond of that, godling."
The guard pushed the tip of the staff between his prominent ribs, and Loki was forced to find his voice, "I apologise for what has happened on Midgard four years ago. My behaviour was wrong, my tactics were wrong, and most of all my claims were wrong, because I'm not worthy of ruling anything, of being obeyed by anyone."
"Okay, enough, we'll talk about this in private," the sentence earned him some pleased and knowing grins since in their wicked minds that only meant something worse than public humiliation for Loki, "We have more important things to do right now than to listen to this," Tony would have never wanted to use such a harsh tone, but he had no idea how that bunch of bastards would have reacted to him shouting at them that the only sight of them made him feel sick and that there was nothing he desired more than to gather Loki from the floor and to lead him out of that den of monsters.
"You've heard Mr. Stark, remove the slave. We have more important issues to focus our attention on than an useless slave," the elf Tony had decided he hated the most dismissed both the guard and Loki with a wave of his hand, and Loki was shoved outside before Tony could lose his temper for good.
"Oh, Mr Stark, just one thing. That one is a rather popular attraction, so have it for all the time you desire, we just ask you to return him still usable."
Tony gave a jerky nod, because had he tried to answer in a more vocal way he wouldn't have managed to keep the insults and the yelling for himself.
The only thing Tony was grateful for was that on Alfheim they hated the concept of prolonged meetings, preferring to have many sittings than one single long session that would have left them all exhausted and edgy, leading to a worse deal in their opinion.
He was already back in his chambers – having refused the invitation of the members of the council to join them in whatever activity they had in mind because honestly, there was a limit to what he was inclined to do to get a good business deal, and a picnic with slavers definitely wasn't among them – hours before he had thought that possible.
He wasn't glad that first meeting was over only because he couldn't stand the presence of the people he was sitting at the table with, but also because in that way he would have been able to not have Loki out of his sight for too long; if the god was supposed to follow the orders he had received he would have joined him in those rooms in a few moments, staying away from all the dangers that hellish place had in store for him.
He had been sitting on the comfy chaise longue for some minutes when he heard a soft knock at the door.
"Yes?"
"I'm here as you requested."
There was no way to mistake Loki's silky voice, "Come in, Bambi. Oh my God, what the fuck has happened to you?" he got up and sprinted toward him as an incredibly bruised, battered and bloodied version of Loki stepped inside the room.
"The guards saw it fit to remind me what's my place."